School choice debate likely
Any bid by Gov. Bobby Jindal to expand public school choices will trigger arguments over costs and how much students stand to benefit, officials said.
Jindal has repeatedly said that school choice will be one of the key themes of his 2012 public school package, including the possible expansion of state aid for some students to attend private or parochial schools.
Backers label the aid scholarships, and contend that many students desperately need them to escape failing public schools.
“We think that parents should have the opportunity to send their child to the school of their choice, and economics should not prevent them from doing that,” said Danny Loar, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Opponents call the payments vouchers, and contend that they rob traditional public schools of vital dollars, especially after three years of freezes in state aid.
“The way we look at it is any money dedicated to a voucher system is money that could be well used in traditional public education, whether it is higher ed or K-12,” said Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s two largest unions.
Jindal said Wednesday that it will be a few more weeks before he spells out details of his public schools plans.
The governor’s plan will be formally submitted to the Legislature in March.
But there are widespread predictions among legislators and educators that a scholarship-voucher debate is coming again.
“We are going to have the same fight we have had year after year after year on this,” Monaghan said.
The state already has an aid program for a fraction of students, all in New Orleans, as the result of a 2008 law.
That measure provides a maximum of $10 million per year so that up to 1,500 students in troubled public schools can attend private or parochial schools, with the state paying the tuition if they meet income requirements.
An estimated 668,000 students attend public schools.
In an often-repeated line, Jindal told reporters on Wednesday that one of the aims of his proposals will be to ensure that all families, especially those trapped in failing public schools, have meaningful choices for their children.
He mentioned scholarships, tax deductions, charter schools and online classes.
“We would like to see an expansion of the scholarship program statewide,” Loar said in an interview.
However, any push to expand aid for students would carry a hefty price tag in a year that is expected to be marked by modest spending options.
Monaghan, whose group frequently clashes with Jindal, said public schools would have to absorb the punch if aid is expanded for students to attend private or parochial schools.
“That’s what makes this a bizarre idea,” he said.
However, Jindal told reporters on Friday that, while he is not ready to make such a proposal, expanding Louisiana’s scholarship program would be possible.
“If the Legislature, if the administration decided to pursue that, it absolutely would be financially feasible,” he said.
Jindal also said that, while the aid is capped at 90 percent of what students get from traditional school aid, the state is actually spending about half for those students.
How much students stand to gain from the aid is another issue.
Scholarship backers note that nearly half of Louisiana’s roughly 1,300 public schools got a “D” or an “F” last year in the state’s first issuance of traditional letter grades for schools.
But Leslie Jacobs, a former member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, did a study in 2010 that said some students who got the aid fared poorly on key test scores.
The review focused on 240 third- and fourth-graders tested in 2010.
Scholarship advocates questioned the validity of Jacobs’ study.
Eric Lewis, state director of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, said 93 percent of New Orleans parents who use the scholarships are satisfied with them and parents elsewhere are clamoring for more school choices.
The BAEO is a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., with state branches. The group says its mission is to increase access to high-quality education for black children, including public, private and charter schools and home schooling.